Filling the Empty Spaces
by Funky In Fishnet
Summary: PRJF Fran's never had friends before. Jungle Karma Pizza changes her life.


_**Disclaimer**__: I own nothing, it's all Disney's._

_**Author Notes**__: My version of how the series could go maybe and contains spoilers over a future Ranger's probable identity. I'm a little too like Fran for my own good lol. Hope you guys enjoy, please let me know what you think._

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**FILLING THE EMPTY SPACES**

Jungle Karma Pizza changed Fran's life.

It started the day that she discovered it did the most delicious cheese bases and the best toppings of any place in Ocean Bluff. She'd done a lot of research; pizza was her favourite take out meal. Actually, it was one of her favourite things ever, along with books and libraries.

She didn't so much walk into Jungle Karma that first time as fall in the door and drop all her books. That sort of thing happened to Fran a lot.

That was the first time she met RJ. He helped pick up her books, dusted her off, and offered her the night's special. She took that and tried several others. Every one tasted amazing.

That really changed her life, meeting RJ. He was one of the first people she'd met who liked pizza as much as she did. And he liked talking to her. That was new. It was nice.

When he found out she could cook, he asked her her opinions of his new pizza recipes and took her answers seriously. But he wouldn't give her the secret to his sauce. It was really exciting, like having an older brother or something. Like she'd read about.

Her parents didn't mind that she spent so much time out of the house. Her college grades were good and she never got into any trouble, so they smiled when they saw her and asked about her day. Fran understood that they were busy people.

RJ gave her her first job. When he disappeared that day his new staff arrived, the customers had started getting really angry. Fran hadn't wanted RJ to get into trouble so she'd cooked and served what she could. RJ's oven was tricky and more complicated that the stove at home. But no one complained and by the end of the day, she had her own orange cap. She didn't stop wearing it for a solid week.

His new staff were nice too, when they weren't abandoning her for a big emergency that no one would explain to her. Theo refused to teach her how to do everything perfectly after he saw her try and copy Lily's dance moves and almost mow down the table of four halfway through their second pizza. But he still talked to her and Fran liked to think that he was her friend. He didn't tell her to leave him alone like other people did. And she watched a lot of TV with Lily, Lily liked watching everything, and was good at reminding Fran to breathe when she forgot.

And Casey……..Casey loved pizza and Lily loved watching him create them. It made her tingle. But RJ said that the restaurant wouldn't get cleaned by itself and Fran blushed and stammered and grabbed the broom.

RJ got her working in the kitchen after he tasted one of her sauce recipes. He said she had a gift for cookery, or alchemy as he called it. Fran dropped two plates when he told her that.

"That's delicious!" Casey exclaimed, tugging his spoon from his mouth with wide eyes. "How did you do that?"

"Oh, um, well, there's this book that's got really good recipes in and this sauce is in there but I don't like that much garlic so I used basil and turmeric and….." Fran began, remembering to suck in a breath before beginning again. "And I experiment a lot, you know."

The admiration on Casey's face made all her words dry up and Fran didn't know what to do but smile. That had never happened before.

"Theo, you have got to try this," Casey thrust a spoon towards his friend who glared when a smear of sauce ended up on his sleeve. "Come on, it'll wash off. This tastes great!"

Fran couldn't stop smiling after that. No one had ever _liked_ what she did so much before. It made her break more stuff than even she did usually. It was so embarrassing, especially since Lily and Theo were really co-ordinated. They said that they'd spent like the past ten years learning martial arts. Casey hadn't been learning for as long as them, but he was still really good.

They took turns at walking Fran home when they could, because Ocean Bluff had become really dangerous lately. The monster attacks made Fran nervous about walking alone, especially after those creatures had chased her a couple of times.

"I'm sorry, Fran," Lily said one day, looking upset as they reached Fran's house.

"What for?" Fran was confused, they hadn't gotten attacked that night.

"It's just…….never mind. See you tomorrow."

Sometimes Fran taught Lily to cook. She'd offered to after the disaster Lily had produced when she'd tried cooking something other than pizza, a challenge from Theo according to Casey. Everyone should be able to cook, it was so much fun and Fran wanted to share that with Lily after all her friend had done for her.

She taught Lily how to make a basic spaghetti sauce without destroying too much of RJ's kitchen in her enthusiasm. Theo said it was the first edible dish Lily'd ever cooked.

RJ told Fran he thought she'd benefit from some meditation classes. Fran thought that this was like the friendships she'd read about. In fact, it was even better than her books.

RJ tried to teach her techniques to calm her down and keep her energy level. He was really Zen and Fran felt awful none of what he tried worked. She couldn't get the hang of katas at all and meditations made her twitchy. RJ shrugged and said that was cool. Casey hated meditation too.

A lot of stuff didn't make sense about her new friends. Like why they would never tell her where they ran off to so often, leaving her to deal with a restaurant full of customers. It was hard, messy, and horrible work for Fran a lot of the time, coping by herself. Lily said it was complicated.

Fran pounced on that excitedly. Were they spies? Secret agents employed to work undercover at Jungle Karma until called upon to leap into action? Or maybe they were part of a gang? Or a weird cult? Or a secret underground project that produced highly skilled ninjas to combat the monsters. That kind of thing happened a lot in Fran's books.

Lily laughed at her guesses. Fran didn't mind, she kept guessing. She didn't like being left out.

Their secret felt familiar though, like something she should remember. But Fran kept forgetting to try and remember, there was always something going on to distract her.

Then there was the time that she was studying in Jungle Karma the night her dad needed her out the house during his city councillors meeting and Lily and Theo burst in, carrying Casey between them. His hand was mangled in a way that made Fran feel green and she had to dash to the bathroom when the last extra-thick crust churned dangerously in her stomach.

The restaurant was empty when she emerged, but she could hear people shouting in the backrooms where she wasn't allowed to go. Casey sounded like he was in a lot of pain.

"Hello?" Fran called worriedly, making her way through the kitchen with her heart going all skittery. "What's happened? Should I call an ambulance?"

She just caught sight of a really big room and RJ looking more serious than she'd ever seen him when Lily blocked her view. She looked so pale and angry and kind of scary, that Fran yelped.

"It's ok, Fran, really. He got caught in the monster attack," Lily told her. "RJ's handling it."

"Are you sure? Because I can call the doctor," Fran felt herself go light headed from lack of air and distantly heard Lily tell her breathe. She felt green again thinking about how bad Casey's hand had looked. "It looked really bad."

"No, really, it's fine," Lily turned her around and pointed her towards the restaurant. "You should go, we'll lock up."

Despite her protests and worry, Fran found herself outside. She heard Lily click the lock shut.

Fran didn't sleep well that night at all and seeing Casey the next day didn't help. His hand was all bandaged up and he was stuck on register duty until everything healed.

"Are you alright?" Fran gasped when she saw him, scattering the menus she'd been sorting. "What did the doctor say? There's this poultice that I can make that……."

"Fran, it's ok," Casey interrupted, his mouth all tight like her dad when he got distracted at work. "I just took on too many monsters, I'll heal. Maybe I'm not cut out for this."

"Pizzas?"

"No…..living here, with the monsters and everything. Lily and Theo are handling it a lot better than me."

Casey sounded so sad and low that Fran put a hand on his shoulder. She didn't want him to feel so bad.

"Everyone's scared of the monsters," she told him. "Really, I…..I think I saw RJ hiding when that monster grew really big last week. And Theo got that concussion and Lily hurt her leg……"

"But they didn't get caught!" protested Casey before sighing, seeing the fright in Fran's eyes. "I just…… I don't deserve to be here."

RJ yelled for a pizza order then and Fran got caught up in a new sauce idea and didn't get a chance to ask Casey what he was talking about. She forgot about it anyway because Casey looked a lot better the next day and his hand was healing really well. RJ said he'd be back in the kitchen after the weekend.

Everything made a lot more sense the day that RJ ran in looking really stressed out.

"Fran!" he sounded really relieved and grabbed her arm. "I need your help, come on!"

That was when he led her to this bank of monitors in his back room, told her to keep an eye on the Power Rangers, snatched up a pair of purple sunglasses, and ran out. Fran found herself clutching a microphone and watching as three of her favourite superheroes fought really ugly monsters. Superheroes with her friends' voices. Oh boy!

She yelled warnings and worried and saw RJ morph. She could hardly breathe by the end of it.

That was how the others found her a few hours later.

"We're sorry we didn't tell you, Fran," Lily apologised. "But we couldn't risk……"

"It's ok, I understand," Fran said quickly, finding she could talk again. "I mean, you guys are the Power Rangers!"

"Thank you, Fran," RJ smiled at her like he was proud, it made her blush. "For your help today."

"Oh, anytime, really. I was, you know, glad to help," Fran managed, trying to be casual but failing, especially when Casey smiled at her. "Really, anytime."

She wished them good luck when they left now and kept rushing back to check on the monitors to see how they were doing. It still got very messy at times for her, more than once she was cleaning spaghetti out of her hair. And she still got really tired from covering three or four people's shifts.

But she still had her books. She wasn't reading them as much as she used to, but they were always there, right when she needed them. And she wouldn't leave Jungle Karma again. It was where she'd found her first real friends. It was…….it was like home.

Theo showed her how to fold the perfect paper crane. When she got only the beak crooked, Fran gave a red one to Casey on his birthday (along with a couple of books she thought he'd really like) with his name on the wing.

RJ said he'd seriously consider going into business with her when she finished college. They could revolutionise the industry together. Fran got really happy when he talked about it. It sounded so exciting.

"Ocean Bluff's ok," Lily commented as she and Fran sat outside the back door in the warm evening sun. "I'm glad we got sent here."

"I'm glad too," Fran replied with a wide happy smile as Lily knocked their glasses together, spilling soda.

She tugged her work cap straight, listening to RJ teaching Casey how to refine his meditation technique. Theo was serving customers, Fran could see a pizza pie spinning out of the corner of her eye. He still wouldn't teach her how to do that after she'd dropped two on him.

"You don't have to wear that," Lily said, amused as she nodded towards Fran's cap. "We're on a break."

"I know, but I like it, a lot," bubbled Fran, touching the peak.

"I noticed. But you know what? It kind of suits you."

Fran grinned happily, and was about to speak when a really familiar sounding tune sounded from the sunglasses folded into Lily's work shirt pocket. Theo and Casey appeared at the door.

"Sorry, Fran. We've got to go," Casey leant against the doorframe with a smile that made Fran flush as she smiled back

"That's ok, go save the world," Fran flapped a hand at them, splashing soda about. "I can handle it, probably."

"There's a party of ten waiting to be seated," Theo told her as the others raced away. "And two pizzas baking for table four."

"I've got it," Fran called after them, waving even though they couldn't see her.

The pizzas smelled great. Mmmm, two Blue Ranger Specials. RJ had started naming his pizzas after the Rangers, the customers loved it. So did Fran. She'd perfected the sauces on them.

Whoa. The restaurant was crowded. Fran smiled nervously. The 10-strong group milled about restlessly. They looked like they could use some pizza. She could help out with that. No one should go without pizza for too long.

Grabbing her notepad and pen, Fran smiled big as she came to a stop in front of them. She could seat them and serve the pizzas and then check on the Rangers before taking the group's orders. Maybe she'd even get off early tonight. Casey had invited her to try out a new café place with him. He was excited about the video games they had there, he loved them as much as Lily loved watching TV. The video games could be fun, they sounded like one of the graphic novels Fran'd read recently.

She adjusted her cap minutely.

"Welcome to Jungle Karma Pizza. How can I fill your pizza needs?"

Her friends were out battling monsters, but Fran liked to think that maybe she was helping save her city too, one group of hungry customers at a time.

_-end _


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